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Passengers of 6-day delayed flight arrive from Turkey to Urals city

VIM Avia’s flight 9110 arrived in Chelyabinsk at 08:47 Moscow time, the flight was due to arrive on September 25, the airport said

TASS. October 1. Passengers of the Antalya - Chelyabinsk flight of VIM Airlines, which had been delayed for six days, arrived from Turkey to the Urals, the airport in Chelyabinsk said on Sunday.

"VIM Avia’s flight 9110 arrived in Chelyabinsk at 10:47 (08:47 Moscow time)," the airport said. "The flight was due to arrive on September 25."

VIM Avia’s press service presented excuses to the passengers, saying about the complicated financial situation it was facing.

Russia’s tenth largest carrier announced on September 25 that it was stopping all charter flight operations due to financial problems and shortage of the working capital. The announcement was preceded by a series of flight delays in Russian and foreign airports.

The air carrier obliged to transport more than 200,000 passengers before the end of this year.

The Federal Air Transport Agency has initiated an unscheduled inspection of VIM Airlines. According to the agency, substantial flight delays were linked to the company’s debts to fueling companies. The agency says that the VIM Airlines debt arrears had amounted to seven billion rubles ($121.638mln).

The Russian Investigative Committee has launched a criminal case into a suspected large-scale embezzlement by some of the company’s officials.

On Friday, a Moscow court has placed director general of Russia’s debt-laden VIM Airlines, Alexander Kochnev, who is charged with embezzling the company’s funds, under home arrest till November 25. Earlier in the day, the company’s chief accountant Yekaterina Panteleyeva was also placed under home arrest, also till November 25.

According to investigators, the company’s top managers have been drawing funds from the company’s accounts with an aim of their further embezzlement. Apart from that, being unable to serve its passenger the company continued to sell tickets.